What happened to Alibaba's Qwen companions?
Alibaba shut down Qwen's humanlike, user-created agents on July 10, 2026, then cut its remaining agent functions on July 15. Unlike Doubao, Qwen offered no migration path or export window — user configurations and conversation histories were deleted outright, with no recovery option.
Answered in
China Shut Down Doubao and Qwen's AI 'Companions' OvernightA Beijing rule effective July 15, 2026 forced ByteDance's Doubao and Alibaba's Qwen to shut down their AI companion agent features overnight.
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